People with personality disorders are to be found in all branches of psychiatric services, from the outpatient and community care through to acute inpatient care. Their behaviour is difficult, manipulative, threatening and they are hard to manage in institutional settings. Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder is based on unique research study conducted in the three English high security hospitals - Ashworth, Rampton and Broadmoor. Through in-depth analysis of an extensive questionnaire survey followed by personal interviews, Len Bowers shows how positive or negative attitudes to PD patients arise and are maintained over time, as well as discusses what impact they have upon nurses and the care they provide to patients, and draws some practical conclusions. The difficulties facing staff who care for and treat PD patients are enormous, and constitute a significant personal challenge for the psychiatric professional of any discipline. For the first time this book provides details of the most effective ways of creating a positive context for working with personality disorder and contains a blueprint for training and organisational structures across the professional spectrum.

In 1999, policymakers in England and Wales advanced controversial proposals for the preventive detention of a group they termed 'dangerous people with severe personality disorders'. Against a background of uncertain scientific knowledge, legal and policy actors have long faced challenges in reconciling the need to prevent crime with the need to respect the rights of the 'dangerous'. Ailbhe O'Loughlin's book, Law and Personality Disorder, situates contemporary debates about 'dangerous' offenders within this decades-old battle between the proponents of liberal legal principles and advocates of social defence. Law and Personality Disorder deconstructs competing images of offenders with personality disorders and the dilemmas they present, combining insights from criminology, psychiatry, psychology, and law. The book thus critically engages with an alluring narrative: the state has a duty to protect the public from 'dangerous' individuals, but it can also protect the human rights of the 'dangerous' by providing them with rehabilitation opportunities. While human rights law is often invoked as a means of curbing the excesses of preventive justice, O'Loughlin demonstrates that the case law of the European Court of Human Rights tends to legitimise coercive measures. Criminal law, furthermore, enables the punishment of offenders with mental disorders by resisting psychiatric evidence that they may not be fully responsible for their actions. Examining gaps in sentencing law, mental health law, and human rights law, this innovative book offers readers a comprehensive interpretation of the laws governing offenders with personality disorders and puts forward proposals for reform.

This book offers a wide variety of health care professionals an invaluable and long-awaited resource for the proper assessment, treatment, and management of personality disordered individuals. Addresses clinical practice issues related to the understanding, assessment and treatment of people who have been diagnosed with a personality disorder Focuses on the experience, practice and emerging ideas and findings of practitioners in the field Reflects the multidisciplinary nature of practice in the field Aimed at practitioners working in high security hospitals, prisons and other community services